ecial for Grandparents' Day' - Local History Archives

News
14A
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From page 1
Escanaba and Duluth for tacon-
Ite Iron-ore pellets. Limestone
was hauled from Lake Huron
ports, such as Rogers City, and
Kentucky coal was loaded at
Toledo and Sandusky, OhiO
Smhng the lakes, havmg the
chance "to see the watery palt
of the world," as Ishmael would
say, seems adventuresome, but
111 reahty It mvolves plam hard
work, paltlculally fOl' deck
hands whose duty It IS to perform
much of the manual labor
aboard the mOlethan 700-footlong
vessels Crews work
around the clock, fow hours on
eIght how s off
On top of these labors, there
IS always the ImmInent threat
of losmg one's hfe Seaman
who've saIled both the oceans
and the Great Lakes maIntaIn
the latter are the bIgger threat,
both to man and shIp Lake
Supenor, the largest, deepest,
.and coldest of the Great Lakes,
IS paltlcul81ly dangerous m the
fall when Arrt!c wmds - .\1
bel18 clIppers - sweep down to
meet the warmth of autumn
~llr, producmg sudden violent
storms
"That's the kInd of weather
you get out on the Great
Lakes," Sald Gathff "QUIck
changes, qUIck changes In
~veather" In the weeks ahead
Sailors on the Great Lakes wIll
pe encountermg those changmg
~eather patterns
"They'll get a couple good
blows dnd then November's the
worst month," saId Gatliff
"November's sunk more ships
than any other"
In fact, the November storm
of 1913 IS stIll talked about, a
specter of doom m the minds of
many Great Lakes saIlors A
mmglmg of northwesterly and
northeasterly winds - a crosshatching
- caused what IS
known as a "confused sea."
Thirty-foot waves together WIth
a blinding blizzard took the
lIves of at least 235 men; and
eIght major vessels were lost on
Lake Huron alone In 1975
hurncane wmds on Lake Supe~
nor wreaked havoc on the Edmund
FItzgerald as the srup
cracked In two and plunged 500
feet to the bottom, takmg the
entrre crew with It.
Gathff recalled a storm In
the spring of 1984 on a return
voyage from Marquette aboard
the Ernest R Breech. The shIp
was keepmg near the shore to
avoid the bIgger waves m the
mIddle of Lake Supenor.
"It was the first trip of the
year We were heading along
the beach of the CanadIan
shore and It was blowing, I
mean It was probably blowmg
60 to 65 knots and we were ICing
up There was ice 8, 10, 12
mches thick on the shIp" The
usual 24-hour trip from Marquette
to Sault Ste MarIe took
an extra 12 hours," he SaId.
"By the tIme we got down to
the Soo, we were out there m
T-shIrts because now It's 70 degrees
and sunny"
UnpredIctable storms mstIll
fear and trepidatiOn m even the
most experienced of sailors,
who are less naive than the
younger hands
"Depends what kmd of skip
r.;r you're with," saId Gatliff
'Some of them are real
weather COnsciOUSand keep a
good eye on It; others are kind
(Ifby the seat of theIr pants "
SurvIval suits are part of a
sailor's gear, whIch protect
against hypothermIa - more
often the cause of death than
drowning Gatliff saId that
some 20- and 3D-year veteran
saIlors are "shell-shocked" as a
result of bemg m one-tao-many
close calls "One guy used to
work all year and then take
November off He had almost
been washed over He'd say It
was to go huntmg, but It was
because he was scared to
death," GatlIff saId
Gathff got hiS start m saIlmg
on a small tug and barge operating
In Lake MIchIgan between
Beaver Island and the
mamland, near CharleVOIX
Then he worked for the Ludmgton
Tram Ferries In 1979, he
landed a Job on one of the Ford
steamers as a deck hand Hav.
mg lIttle money then, he de-
Cided to stIck It out tIll lay-up,
usually m early January, when
the Soo locks close tIll late
March
Now WIth plenty of cash m
hiS pocket Gathff decided to
venture to the warmer climes
of Austraha and New Zealand
for the Winter When he re-
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